Abrasive sandpaper and other sheet materials for sanding, polishing and otherwise removing a layer of material are known in the art. Sandpaper of various grits and backing materials are commonly used across manufacturing fields on almost all materials from sanding wood to polishing clear coat paints. Sandpaper is commonly manufactured on paper backing which is easily cut, torn or folded back onto itself to achieve the desired shape or configuration suitable for the application. Any user of sandpaper knows the difficulty in using sandpaper as its thin, flimsy paper backing easily folds back on itself in use and tears rather easily. The paper backing of common sandpaper may also be coated to resist absorption of water or moisture which would otherwise allow the sandpaper to be too easily torn on application of force to remove material. Water resistant sandpaper nonetheless will roll-up or curl on prolonged exposure to moisture making it difficult to use for extended periods of time.
Numerous tools, both manual and powered, have been developed to grasp and hold the thin, commercially available sandpaper such as powered orbital sanders and hand held sanding blocks. The power sanders typically require a certain width or size of sandpaper and intricate folding or manipulation of the outer edges under strong spring clips which grasp and hold the edges of the sandpaper. The process to remove and install sandpaper on powered sandpaper is difficult and time consuming to properly align and hold the sandpaper in proper relationship to the powered or moving surface of the tool. It commonly takes in upwards of one minute or longer to secure a new piece of sandpaper to the powered sander.
Hand held sanding tools suffer from similar disadvantages. Sanding blocks known in the art require difficult manipulation of the sandpaper around one or more edges of the block and use clamps or barbs to pierce the sandpaper to hold it in place. Piercing the sandpaper with the barbs requires forced placement of the user's fingers in close proximity to the barbs increasing the chances of injury. Commercially available sanding blocks are bulky and further are made from dense materials which are heavy and would be lost if dropped in water for example, in a marine environment.
Thus it would be desirable to provide an abrasive sheet that has a supportive backing structure to improve on the disadvantages in common sandpaper and like media. It is further desirable to provide an abrasive sheet that is easy and comfortable to grasp, that maintains the integrity of the abrasive surface under force or environmental exposure, that is easily cut to a desired shape or configuration, that is water resistant and does not roll-up or curl when exposed to moisture, and that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture. It is further desirable to provide an abrasive sheet that is easily usable and adaptable to hand tools and hand-operated power tools that requires only a few seconds to remove a used abrasive sheet with new or alternate abrasive sheet.